Week 4 - 12/9/2012

Here we are in Week 4. The Sun Gods are now romping and running around the back yard like pros! They'll explore the entire backyard without crying for someone to come get them. In fact two decided to take a swim in the pond. Lio was the first to get to swim and Sury was the second, although hers wasn't by choice (she accidentally fell in while playing with another puppy). This is one good thing about having puppies in AZ during the winter, we can actually enjoy the outdoors and have our little ones eat, play and rest outside for part of the day. Play fighting was this week's theme. If the puppies were awake, they were playing constantly with each other. Our two black and tans actually think they are 'top dog' when they are playing, emitting the most growls and walking away the winner in most play fights. Ra is the sweetest and most laid back of all the puppies and you wouldn't believe he's one of the toughest players. Sweet little Arinna who is physically smaller than many of her siblings will stand so firm and tall when others attack that they can't even knock her over!

Personalities of the pups are shining brighter every day. The puppies are so much bolder than before and the whining has decreased (except when mom comes around- I think that will always emit some whining!). They will all come running to the kitchen when one of us taps on their food bowl which signals 'it's time to eat!' After they eat up they run around the tile just fine playing with each other and even playing with Spyro (although he's only focused on what food they left behind at that point). About half of the puppies are running back into their play pen to go potty on the pee pads instead of wherever they are in the kitchen at the time! We were both so amazed and happy to see that some have learned that they know where they should and shouldn't go to the bathroom! Best of all they are not peeing in their kennel anymore which is a great step (we no longer have to wash puppy blankets twice a day so I can actually do OUR laundry now).

The puppies were exposed to all sorts of loud noises in the past week such as vacuum cleaning, pots banging, loud music, thunderstorms, yelling (which is what we do each Sunday while watching Cardinals football on TV) and will continue to expose them to other sounds during next week like cars driving by, a Harley starting up, and more. It's too funny when the puppies will bark at us if we make a noise or walk by their pen. I miss their little baby puppy grunts that they always did when we picked them up but now we get tons and tons of Chinook kisses to make up for that! Next weekend we'll have our puppy socialization party to introduce the puppies to all sorts of other items that the guests will bring as well as the people themselves. That should get us some great photos for next week.

The Sun God litter (as always in order of appearance):